Going to start a fresh water tank to keep him?
When I go fishing (only when I can use the boat) I often catch lunker Blue Gills. Last year I cought one almost 1" long, made me think about starting a fresh water tank.

i was out last wedensday and last saturday.. we went to wabesa(sp) at Farm lake... on wedensday we brought home 38 perch avg size about 8 inches with the biggest being 11 inches.. on saturday we went out and caught about 20 keepers. we didnt get any flags but a couple people did around us and brought in some decent northerns.. I seen one group of 3 guys pull one up about that big, wonder if it was you maybe?

The fish was from the Lauderdale lakes out by East Troy. I usually fish out east a bit more since I grew up in Waukesha and know the lakes out there more, though I go to once Little Bay de Noc every winter and catch some jumbo Walleye (28-31"). Unfortunately during the ice fishing season my reef tank gets a little neglected, but I make up for it in between fishing seasons (and when the ice gets poor after days like today).

Where is this Lake Farm Park at Waubesa? I'd like to find a decent lake for catching perch without needing to go to the middle of Mendota. Any special methods/spots/tactics used for catching the Perch?

i go about 400 yards out from the boat launch, there is a white shanty out there i use that for reference (might be moved/gone now with the warm weather) there is also a gazebo looking house/thing on the left shoreline that i use as a reference point make a 90 degree angle with the gazebo and the boat launch.most everyone else stays closer to shore. dont be afraid to hike a little bit then we set up shop drill holes and look down to see if your in the weeds, you want a couple weeds but not many that fill your hole, you should see bottom its about 5 1/2- 6 feet. you gotta work the perch no sitting and drinking beers! save that for when you catch em and fry them up! i use a orange jig with either wax worm (spikes didnt work AS well for me) or a minnow head(more of a mess but its worth it to the bigger perch!) then i drop it in the hole, the drop is important as almost imediatly you will have a perchs intrest. dont jig when the perch is within 10 inches of the jig let it sit on the bottom of the sand. maybe a slight and do i ever mean slight jig if it has the attention span of a 2 year old! the perch chase the minnows so if you see minnows you are in the gold. stick it out a few and if you see the minnows scatter a perch will be under you hole soon (hopefully) what i do is sit in the shanty for a lil bit and if i come into a couple perch ill sit there untill i catch them or they leave then 5-10 min after they leave ill leave the shanty and belly up and i do mean belly up to a hole nearby and see if the action is there.. ill hole hop to about 5-6 holes and then return to the shanty. rince and repeat till you get bored or limit out. you can even set up some tipups around the area, others have landed decent northern in that location but our big fish luck hasnt hit us yet this year oh and another thing... we did see crappies under our holes the first time but not the second time.. and they were HUGE ones i was shaking when they came under, but they wernt intrested in the wax worms.... this concludes perch hunting 101!

yea if only we could get some cold days to get some ice back... i wont go on the ice if its under 4 inches i know 2 is supposed to be safe but i dont like being cold and wet! here is a good site for checking out lakes...